Best Harddrive Solution for a Sony PD170
 

Hi All,
I have two Sony PD170's with Anamorphic Lens Attachments that I am not keen on parting with or upgrading to a HDV solution any time soon. I record in PAL DV format or DVCAM for professional use. I want to be able to record live events for a number of hours, 3 or more, onto Harddrive. Essentially I was looking into the CitiDisk, but have found some people to have problems with them if they forget to turn them off before shutting off the camera, etc. Is the Firestore OK to use, I don't want to have to keep shuffling tapes into the unit, I want to rely more on a harddrive unit to keep recording the footage for long events. A saleperson told me that for the Firestore, you need to keep putting tapes in the camera for it to even work and when you stop the tape the harddrive stops, which completely defeats the purpose for me. Could anyone give me some advice on this?

Also look at nNovia. We've been using them for years, mostly with no problems. I've seen people work work with CitiDisk and Focus Enhancements with no worries. http://www.nnovia.com/

Just read the specs and find the one you'd feel most comfortable with.

Look there isn't a perfect hard drive solution yet. All of them have there problems.

nNovia
 

Thank you firstly for your prompt reply. I just don't exactly know what solution would work and how it works with my cameras. I don't think nNovia make a compact enough solution that will strap onto the camera, without me being attached umbilically to the camera, I don't want to cart a massive harddrive around my neck. I think the citidisk is the smallest and largest size at 120GB. So I want to know what would work best with the PD170P to be truly tapeless (or have a tape inserted as backup) and record direct to disk without too much weight or problems with the unit not lasting more than 2 hours of battery time. If I kick out the cable or something like that it is my own stupid fault, I just want to know what will work the best in the range for my camera.

Anyone?
 

I still haven't found the perfect solution. I want to know what harddrives work the best for this camcorder. If someone could please let me know. Advantages and Disadvantages of the various models.

i use a firestore for my pd170 and canon xl2. you DO NOT need to have a tape in either unit. just use the record button on the hard drive and it works fine. the record button on the camera will not work without a tape.

pd170
xl2
dv5100

the sony models DSR-DU1 and the new HVR-DR60 can work without tapes, provided you got a camera from the "pro" line versus the "consumer" line (PD serie versus VX serie). The pro line has the REC button not depending on the presence of the tape, so you can use it without tape or eject tape while recording on disk.
unfortunately i got a VX2000, so i cannot use without tape.
the DSR-DU1 is a great device but original harddisk is a bit small (40 gig).
I replaced mine with a 80 gig to get 7 hours. it uses regular low speed 2.5 Hitachi IDE laptop drive, so in case of problem you can replace it easily.
The drawback of the DU1 is that is not a real harddisk, more a tapeless recorder. Speed transfer from DU1 to PC is maximum 2x.
The new DR60 is a lot smaller and do HDV and seen by PC like a real USB disk.
It looks more like a nice gadget while the DU1 look like a heavy duty device, but i can not tell you if one is better than another
IMHO, i would not use such device as the only recording media.
I use it with tapes, when there is no place for mistakes, so in case of problem i can make sure i will get video.
The disk may fail or the tape may fail, but it is very rare that both will fail at same time.
Using an external disk is painful is you have no reason. This is additional wheight, more batteries to purchase and charge, a firewire cable to attach (and this is the main problem, it can be plugged out easily from the camera.)
I am looking to purchase the new DR60, because i am now on FX1 HDV so if you are interested by my DU1 we could arrange something.
If you look for direct transfer from disk to PC at fast speed, the firestore seems to be a good product.
ot perhaps you can find older DV product on ebay at nice price, they are usually all ok and cheap because a bit obsolete since new devices are smaller and do HDV (but cost a lot).

I have both the nNovia recorders and a Sony DR60. I love them both for sure. If size and weight is an issue the DR60 wins this one hands down from most everything else I've seen out there. It will work with most any DV or HDV2 camera. The recording time is about 4hrs but I've not found that to be a limitation with my shooting. Download time is a little slower than the nNovia but not bad (4-6x real time). One plus of the nNovia recorders is you can pop out the disk drive and put in a fresh one and keep going. The NTFS capability is very nice on the nNovia too if you are going to record single long events. The Sony DR60 is FAT based and will break the video up into about 4gig pieces. This isn't a problem either in reality but something you should know.

If you have any specific question about these I would be happy to share what little I know.

Chris

Which Firestore?
 

Hi,
To Kenneth Johnson, which firestore do you use? What particular model? Would any of the new ones suit me for the PD170?
Thank you all for the great info.